1 Corinthians 3:1-4
Division and jealousy reveal that believers are still thinking like the world instead of growing in Christ.
1 Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now,
3 for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?
Division and jealousy reveal that believers are still thinking like the world instead of growing in Christ.
Paul confronts the Corinthians for their spiritual immaturity, explaining that their jealousy and factionalism reveal that they are still thinking according to worldly patterns rather than the Spirit.
After describing the difference between the natural person and the spiritual person in chapter two, Paul now applies the distinction directly to the Corinthian church. Although they have received the Spirit, their behavior demonstrates immaturity. Their divisions around teachers show that they are still evaluating ministry through worldly categories of status and loyalty. Paul therefore addresses them as infants in Christ who require foundational instruction. This section prepares the way for Paul's broader teaching on ministry and church unity in the following verses. The apostle aims to expose how factionalism contradicts the gospel and reveals spiritual immaturity.
The Corinthian church had developed divisions around prominent teachers, including Paul and Apollos. In a culture that admired rhetorical skill and philosophical prestige, believers were tempted to evaluate Christian leaders according to worldly standards. Paul confronts this tendency by identifying such behavior as evidence of spiritual immaturity.
God’s Field, God’s Building, God’s Temple
Because the church belongs to God and is his holy temple, believers must abandon worldly boasting, reject immature factionalism, and build carefully on the one foundation, Jesus Christ.